Tuesday, 8 November 2016

The Fun Run (not for charity)

After thoroughly examining the orb obtained from the Chaos Coven (after 7 exorcisms and 11 blessings) it was determined that it was some sort of transmitting device. Derric, the AD Mech had bio-probed it and came back with the dna residue of creatures from the planet Bluescreen in the system of G'Lare. The Winchester, Jenna's personal ship had to be readied for the system jump. An errand needed to be undertaken. Due to the clandestine approach needed on Bluescreen a short trip to the Midden - a lawless quasi-legal den of pirates and thieves to collect some surveillance equipment was necessary. A large settlement in the moon of Silaris Prime it was ideal for obtaining unusual items for a price. However, there was a problem, there was another party interested in the occular probe drone than Jenna needed. The customs of the Silarian trade guilds meant that if two prospective buyers wanted the same item the group who wants it more is to be traded with. Unfortunately, this involves a rather old Silarian custom called a scavhunt. The rules were simple, whoever retrieved the package from the designated area got to trade with the Silarian merchant Bocul Charramh. Failure meant that no one would trade with the warband and the trip to Bluescreen would be highly problematic. Jenna was determined that the problems would be someone else's.

Hello again! It's that time of the day/week/month that I inflict another battle report on those curious enough to click on one of the many, many links I scatter around the Internet. This week is myself vs Pat. He went for another newly created gang - Rogue Traders this time. He expressed a preference for fighting my Inquisition Cell - Jenna's Jokers, and I complied.

The Gangs

Jenna's Jokers have had quite a few adventurers here, here, here and here. They might even get their own Netflix series. Anyway, this is the gang;

Their opponents this time are a Rogue Trader gang going by
the name The Greater Profit.

Por'O Leader/Rogue
Trader Tau (Fire) Musket

Kor'Vre
Heavy/Arch-Militant Tau
(Fire) Heavy Stubber

Doug
Ganger/Navigator Human Hand bow, Power - Embolden

Aun'La
Ganger/Crewman Tau
(Fire) Musket

Shas'Saal
Ganger/Crewman Tau
(Fire) Musket

Bor'kan
Ganger/Crewman Tau
(Fire) Musket

Inioor
Ganger/Crewman Tau
(Fire) Musket

Canehart
Ganger/Crewman Human Musket, scattergun

Suriel
Ganger/Crewman Human Musket, scattergun

Vaylold
Ganger/Crewman Human Musket, scattergun

Pyriel
Ganger/Crewman Human Scattergun

Ashict
Ganger/Crewman Human Scattergun

Wan Gun-drone Construct

Tuu Gun-drone Construct

Tee Gun-drone Construct

Rask Ratskin
scout Hunting rifle, club.

As you can see Pat has got a lot of bang for his buck, going
with a lot of bodies human, xenos and constructs. Rask the scout is back, I
really must kill him one of these days! He seems to show up for any Tom or Dick
that tries to cause trouble in the underhive (or anywhere else come to think of it).

Set up and Loot Counters.

For the purposes of the game Pat took the north table edge, he always does. I took south. I rolled for the number of loot counters, and up came a 1. This in itself poses a problem as with one token causes the whole focus on it. There will be no subtle feints or misdirection in this game, just a mad dash to the middle where a loot crate is placed. So with that in mind I constructed a cunning plan. It was about a 3 on the Blackadder Cunning-O-Scope Scale, however you need a Blackadder Cunning-Ometer 1 to determine just how cunning it is. Anyway back to the plan, I run my two sprinting Acolytes, Hellion & Chubbs, one or other of them grabs the loot, and we all go back to The Winchester 2 and wait for all this fuss to blow over. Everyone else in the gang are to provide fire support and encouragement. So now on to the game.

The Table Set up. Looks a bit like a starfish.

My left flank, Chubbs, Hellion & Buxom at the top of the tower and a little to their left Spaz & Greylocks.

My right flank, Clumsey, Derric, Tefal, Bangs & Interrogator Jenna, just after this picture was taken, I removed Clumsey as he has infiltrate and I wanted him to do big things this game, I had a subtle plan for him.

The Game

I win the choice of going first so I elect to do just that. My loot retrieval team have it away on their toes and Buxom jogs slowly behind them. As everyone else in my gang is in cover I move them to take up firing positions and no shooting is attempted my my warband. I also place Clumsey at the end of the turn in (what I believe anyway) to be a brilliant place.

Lots of enemies of mankind.

Sprint is an outrageous skill!

Everyone is enjoying their full cover -2 to hit modifiers.

Clumsey's big moment was when he was used as an insurance policy for Chubbs & Hellion . If you look very closely you can see him directly above the Taus head enjoying a truly beautiful -3 to hit modifier! Just you alien gets try to shoot me now, I imagine he squeaks!

That turned out to be a short lived plan. The tau heavy stubber3opened up hitting him once and failing its ammo roll, so in a way he did achieve something.

Jenna & Tefal hide, Derric runs so he can't. I personally think Tefal should be able to Wyrd whilst hiding but like a lot of things, I haven't seen evidence in the book to either confirm or deny that its possible.

Derric wounds that bloke lying at the bottom of the ramp.

Now the vital part of the plan, Chubbs runs up the ladder, grabs the loot and Hellion hides to provide a fail-safe if Chubbs gets hit again. In actual fact, he does. Hellion (in the next turn) picks it up and runs like buggery towards the cheering, Jenna, Tefal and Derric. Jenna & Tefal are cheering fairly quietly as they're hiding.

Hellion runs, the Rogue Traders advance and unfortunately, I'm in bottle roll territory! It was around this time I used the power Cast Glow to give everyone a -1 to hit modifier when fighting in normal lighting conditions. It turns out I had completely got the wrong end of the stick with the ability as it stated normal conditions changes into blinding conditions. One of my failings is I still have half arsed notions of rules that are no longer the same as 20 years ago. I basically got it wrong as there is now no such thing as blinding conditions. I think it is quite important as a -1 to hit mod stopped Hellion getting shot off the above walkway, but I think it worked itself out as I had forgotten about the -1 to hit modifier for moving 12" or more in the previous turn.

The next couple of pictures seem to be taken at crazy angles. Whether this was to signify the chaotic nature of the underhive or perhaps I was holding the camera weirdly. The upshot of this was a lot of Pat's gang advanced shooting at Hellion without hitting her (everyone else is hidden and/or not visible).

This is the final last gasp attempt at shooting Hellion. Her pert buttocks can just about be seen in the distance. So at the start of my turn the loot was about 9" from my table edge, all I need to do is not fail my bottle roll. Yes, that's right. The bottle roll was failed and Jenna's Jokers legged it. As an aside (no alliteration intended) we weren't sure what happened to the loot in the case of a bottle roll so we judged it got dropped as we fled. We got clarification later.

The Aftermath

Well that's another loss for the Inquisition. To be honest, I got a bit obsessed with the sprint in, grab the loot, sprint out - that I neglected to have a plan b. You will notice there was very little reference to many members of the Jokers, this is because I used them badly. I was a bit unlucky with Clumsey McFearsome, but it was still a pretty good idea. Maybe I'll get so cameoline for him next time, making him -4 to hit in full cover. Credit to Pat though, he had a plan and stuck to it, forcing a bottle roll, and the headlines. The post game sequence was pretty good for me 65 TG added to my stash, and my Bookie contact will give me a +1 or -1 in the next scenario roll. Four advance rolls; Tefal got Infiltration, Buxom got the skill Catfall, Derric got the skill Marksman and Greylocks got a strength increase. Chubbs was the only lasting injury and that was Horrible Scars. So all in all not too bad a return for some tactical mediocrity. Pat did very well with his underdog bonus he got 12 rolls on the advance tables, one of his gangers got a chest wound, but as far as I can tell that was the only bad news he got.

1.The Cunning-Ometer goes up to 11.
2. The Winchester is now the name of Jenna's starship and not the pub in Shaun Of The Dead.
3. Tau shouldn't go about with heavy stubbers, they should pay for highly expensive Tau weapon that resemble a seriess ovals with a tube at one end that ejects highly effective bio degradable ammo.

Jenna was furious, a rag tag bunch of xenos and humans had driven off the warband just as they were on the verge of exiting with the trophy. Hellion, the Acolyte who had dropped the loot was bemused, a veteran of many fights she was at a loss to explain why, at the very moment she was about to successfully retrieve the item, she dropped it and fled. Tefal stated there was the taint of psionics about the area which can only mean outside interference. Someone or something was trying to thwart the investigation and Interrogator Pursuivant was determined to find out who.